(ENDE252) Ducks On A String - The Contest

At the end of the 2000s. Perth's underground guitar noise band scene was not as fruitful and plentiful as it once was. Many bands of that ilk were now long since gone.

Styles like math, noise, experimental and post rock were few and far between with the rise of cockrock posing punk bands, post emo teen screams and bogan pub rock taking up a lot of the venue and audience space.

Around the same time of the decade, after a series of familial, personal and professional knockdowns. I found myself back in Western Australia in a depressive slump and working in the dodgiest call centre ever. After years of working hard in and pushing against the odds in the Melbourne Underground Electronic Scene and clubbing and partying almost nightly.

After a few weeks of sitting at my parents house being miserable, watching Foxtel and avoiding muggings and dog maulings in Port Kennedy. Boredom overcame me and I looked through street press for a decent gig, ANY decent gig to get dressed, buy some ciggies, pound some preloading beer in some shitty pub and then go in to the city and watch a band.

It was either somewhere in Fremantle or North Perth that I was attending a show and waiting for the billed punk band to stop snorting dexies out of a wizz fizz bag or something resembling a turnout of more than one digit to appear. That I downed more than a few polite beers and decided to go for a walk and see what I could find.

At a nearby venue I stumbled across a group of scruffy young gentlemen playing their guitars in an impolite manner and screaming like they just fuckin needed to on a small stage near the front door.

I stumbled in and started cheering them on like a drunkard and applauding them. Like any Perth band they figured I was just some drunk random being enthusiastic and they smiled politely. But what they didn't know is I'd much rather hear the unrestrained guitar feedback and noise of the post/math/noise rock variety when I'm that drunk than 3 chord fist in the air bogan chanting. I watched the rest of their set and I made a point not just to congratulate them on a brilliant set but meet them and get more info on them.

The band it turned out was "Ducks On A String". I have no idea how long they had been going at that point or how big or small they were. All I knew was this paunchy then 32 year old was in guitar noise/math rock heaven.

I made it a point to stalk them but typical of the better bands you can find in Perth, going as far back to the 90s when I started gigging. They didn't seem to be playing often or at least - I wasn't in the know to where they were most times. Nevertheless being the late 2000s. I got all their social media deets and stayed in touch.

I ended up following them nonetheless, attended a few shows inebriated here and there and a few years later when I found myself the last caretaker of the notorious Dianella punk squat "299" Among the few parties I threw there where I coloured the lineups a little more thn just 3 chords. I invited them along. They played before a raft of pretentious jacket bands and faux NYC hardcore wannabes in baseball caps. They baffled a lot of the posers there but they as always blew me..and I'm sure a few others in that disgusting mattress stuffed garage...away.

Ducks On A String reminded me of the West Australian noise guitar shit I grew up with starting with shit like Outstation, Pb, early Swapmeat and Tonka Tuff and then graduating to Eastern States flavours like Tweezer, Budd, Midget, Ricaine, S-Bahn and Food...to name a few. The 1990s Australian Noise Rock, Indie/Math sound that was a treasured secret at the time.

Live DOAS had that same urgence and desperation. Like a story they had to tell but didn't care who they told it to. I saw the setlist for their 299 set and was taken aback to find that a lot of their song titles were pretty throwaway like "Untitled" and "Newsong". They were just there to make the musics man. Everything else was accessory.

They were... nothing short of amazing.

Short meaningful riffs and lathers of noise and screeching, discordant melodies, big drums, deep bass and layered guitar. The Albini recipes a lot of great bands and admiring listeners grew up with.

ENDE Records has already dipped it's toe in a few guitar oriented flavours. But this band was something of a white whale for me.

I'd had the Bandcamp self titled album they released for some time (their only release) and I asked them if I could just rehost it.

But to my surprise Hugh their bassplayer, came back to me with a demo recording they made and would prefer that released. A demo predating the album. "We always thought it was way better than the album".

They're right. It fuckin is.

So here for the first time. ENDE Records proudly presents Perth math/post/noise rock extroadinaires DUCKS ON A STRING with their original demo now retitled "The Contest" with an old band pic to capture the energy and exuberance of the band from when they were at their peak.. Added on at the end are "In Progress", "Petrichor" and "Newt" which were not included on the original demo but were on the self titled album.

Not our usual dark electronic and breakcore fare. But if you hear music anything like me. You can hear that in this anyway. To me seeing and hearing shit like this is fuckin breakcore. Noise is noise. To me as long as it blocks out the noise in my head. I can get into it. I hope you do too.

Boris Otterdam

Kingscliff NSW February 12th 2019 

credits

released February 12, 2019

Recorded/mixed by Matt Bairstow in Dylan's bedroom on Grosvenor Road.

DUCKS ON A STRING WERE:

Ben Cusmano - vocals/guitar

Dylan Prosser - vocals/drums

Hugh Thomson - bass.